The Sky Fisher quickly rises into the air, trailing wisps of Cloud katra.

Corazon laughs, looking at me. He flashes his grin, the silver tooth glinting, “Welcome aboard my Airship, The Sky Fisher!”

I gawk at him. That means this is…

A house owns this ship, at least one in Coskana. I look at Kamar in shock. How did he manage to get us a ride on a airship?

He grins back at me, his eyes sparkling in amusement. “I have connections in House Arten, and they happened to have a trade ship heading towards Osmun.”

It takes me a few moments to process what Kamar said. Who exactly is he?

I know he is an Asper, a group of apes that live high up in the mountains. But that’s all. I don’t know the reason he is obsessed with finding the villagers, or even how he has connections with this “House Arten”.

The fact that Arten and Arntile sound similar also can’t be a coincidence.

I must have a worried expression on my face, because Kamar says, “Don’t worry, I signed us up as crew, so we will get paid for this.”

I glance at Captain Corazon, who flicks a lever and stops manning the wheel. He struts down the stairs, folding his arms behind his back. It is only then that I notice the pommel of a sword at his hip.

From the shape of the sword, I would say that it is a scimitar.

He flashes his silver tooth smile. “Impressed, aye? She’s a mighty fine beaut I tell ya. My men have everything handled up here, so I’ll give you a tour. If you’ll follow me.” Corazon spins around on his heel, the red feather flopping in his hat.

Me and Kamar follow behind him to the stairs that lead down into the bowels of the ship. The asper has to duck and squeeze himself between the close walls.

The stairs creak with every step, and they groan at the weight of Kamar.

We pass by the second floor of the ship, moving deeper. It soons become nearly impossible to see in the darkness.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Corazon grabs a lantern hanging by the stairs, cranking a small knob. There is a hiss, then a spark and the oil in the lantern bursts to life.

The flame lights up several feet around us and I can tell we are in the back of the ship. Crates are piled up against the walls, but that isn’t what catches my eyes.

A thin cylinder sits in the center of the room, pipes run along its length and curv up from it’s top, snaking along the roof deeper into the ship.

Corazon motions to the strange metal contraption. “This is the heart of The Sky Fisher, it’s core, if you will.”

He walks up to the cylinder and caresses it with a loving hand. Then he pulls out a key and unlocks a hatch on the side, pulling it open. A deep azure light pours out, illuminating the room and glistening off the metal pipes.

Sitting on a three prong stand is a tiny blue crystal, about the size of my fingernail. Mist pours off it, gathering in the bottom of the container. The prongs touching it pulse with blue energy, pulling power from the gem, and connecting with the pipes that lead out of the cylinder.

Corazon says in a hushed voice, filled with pride and awe. “You’ve probably never seen one of these Kardin. It’s a Sky Gem from Orian, and this is just a small one. The gem’s they have there range from the size of my fist to your head! This tiny little gem produces both air and cloud katra, lifting up The Sky Fisher.”

Orian, the flying country.

The gem is mesmerizing and I look over at Kamar, he too, has an expression of awe.

Corazon closes the hatch with a metallic clang, cutting off the azura light, locking it up. He twirls the key on the end of his finger then slips it in his coat pocket. “Of course this gem is still powerful enough to lift up the entirety of my ship and provide an air shield. I and a few other of the Sky Pathers have to recharge it every once and a awhile.”

I blink. “You recharge it?”

Corazon smiles cockingly, “I wouldn’t be much of a captain if I couldn’t do maintenance on my baby.” He starts walking deeper into the ship, holding the lantern aloft. “If you’ll come with me.”

Kamar and I follow behind him. We walk past a few more doors and into an open area. I can see the curve of the ship here, the walls forming into the bottom of the ship.

There are even more crates here all neatly stacked on shelves.

Corazon spins to face us, opening his arms wide, the feather flopping in his hat. “This is our storage area! There’s about 1,000 or so zeni worth of goods down here, not counting our food supplies and weapons.”

A… thousand zeni?!

The thought is mind boggling. That’s a lot of money, enough for me to live like a king for life.

Corazon points at me and Kamar, “Your job is to guard both the heart of my girl and her goods. I’m not expecting anything bad to come our way, and I trust my crew with my life, but it never hurts to have a few powerful Artists.”

Powerful artist?

I blink and look at Kamar. He mistook me for a Diamond and I had told him I wasn’t anywhere near there. So I could only assume he had enough confidence in himself. I hope.

The captain motions with his hand for us to follow him out of the storage area. “I’ll show you the kitchen and your quarters.”

***

I look over the edge of the ship and vertigo makes the couple mile drop even worse. We pass through a bank of clouds, obscuring the ground far bellow.

I learned early on in the two weeks we have been flying that I don’t do well with heights, or ships for that matter.

The Sky Fisher travels fast. We are already halfway to Osmund, bordering the Rua Desert. We are still technically in the Empire, but at this point it is unsettled explored land.

When the Sky Gem needs repowering Captain Corazon will drop the ship into a nearby river or lake and use the sails to travel till the “Sky Pathers”, as they like to call themselves, have fully refueled the gem.

I look out past the rippling Air that marks the boundary of the air shield and at the sea of wispy white clouds tinged orange by the sun setting. The shield cuts through the clouds, holding them back in the shape of a large Rhombus.

The Air katra shield, which is generated by special devices setup on the ship. The cylinder from what I can tell filters out the two types of katra that the Sky Gem creates. Sending the cloud katra to engulf the hull of the ship, and the air katra to devices that force it into a “shield”.

The shield’s purpose is to both protect against the wind, and to redirect objects. That doesn’t mean that it can stop objects, but it tries to alter their course to go around the ship instead of hit it. Things can still get past the shield, but it’s main purpose is to help redirect air flow.

I am taken out of my thoughts when I see something breach the surface of the clouds.

It looks like a large bird, but with four wings. It is colored a clean white, blending in with the clouds. Long feathers trail behind it, from both its wings and tail.

It’s kinda pretty.

To my surprise it gets close to the Air katra shield and flies into it from the side. The Air distorts, rippling oddly and the bird passes through harmlessly.

More of the birds breach through the clouds, phasing through the shield without any problems.

There’s an entire flock!

The sailors start shouting, pointing at the birds as they start to fly along the side of the ship. The crewmen laughs and some clap each other on the back.

Why are they doing that?

A deckhand notices me looking at the strange birds, I watch as he approaches. If I remember correctly his name is Marce.

The man smiles, “They're good luck, ye see. It’s a sign ‘hat we’ll make it to Osmun safely.”

I nod, looking at the birds. They have to fly pretty fast to keep up with the airship, and it doesn’t look like it’s taxing them at all. I’m pretty sure they’re sacred beasts as well.

“What are they called?”

“They’re called Edos.”

An Edo, and it supposedly brings good luck. That's interesting.

The deckhand moves off to do chores.

I had already done my work for the day and was now relaxing. On top of my duties as a “guard”, I also act a general deckhand. Doing whatever jobs are requested of me. Kamar is in the same boat as I am.

I let out a large yawn and head below decks.

Stepping onto the second floor, I walk down the hallway and past the small kitchen that feeds the entire crew. A delicious smell wafts from behind the door.

Moving past the kitchen, I close in on the front of the boat. I stop a few doors down from where the hallway ends. Stopping at a door, I enter the cramped room I share with Kamar.

He is currently on shift guarding The Sky Fisher’s heart, as Captain Corazon likes to put it. We switch every few hours.

Laying down in my bed, I shut my eyes. I focus my mind’s eye inwards and to my core.

Moving down to it’s surface, I materialize.

I look at the plant, which has now grown to the size of a small tree, and it’s stem has gained a rough wrapping of bark. The branches now sprout many leaves, all swerved to the light coming from the crag in the earth.

What is most surprising the other plants. They are small currently, looking much like the first one did when it was young.

When I look down into the soil, I can sense that these smaller plants are connected by a intricate root system to the tree. They have spread out around the edge of the water, and have stayed near the original plant and the light.

I touch the rough bark of the tree, still trying to understand what it is. I can sense the “plant” gray katra melded with the “life” gray katra. I have tried recreating it put am unable too.

One a brighter side, with the slow influx of vital arua I have been able to amass a good storage of all my gray katra imprints.

I will some of the water in the nearby lake to come up. Shaping it into a thin sheet above all the plants, I drop it. The water smacks into the ground and leaves of the plants, soaking it.

My phantom body distorsts around the droplets of water and then reforms. I get a tingly sensation all along my body from it and I stretch to shake it off.

I have taken to watering the plant every day, feeding them the gray water katra. It has boosted it’s growth and even now I can see the smaller ones growing bigger.

The tree grows about an inch, which compared to its previous growth is rather tame.

I am shaken from my inner world at the sound of bells ringing. Opening my eyes, I sit up from my bed. What’s going on?

Getting off my bed, I grab my spear where I rested it against the wall. Walking to the door, I open it to find crew members rushing down the hallway.

I ask one of them before he can get past, “What’s going on?”

The man wears a white bandana around his forehead, he looks at me with wide eyes. “That's the alarm! We’re under attack!”